Three dimensional printing is a process for manufacturing tooling and prototype parts in a layered fashion. A powdered material is deposited in a layer and bound in selected regions, defined by a computer model of the part, by a liquid binder material which is applied to the layer of powdered material using an ink-jet printhead. These steps are repeated layer by layer to build up the part. Commonly used powders include aluminum oxide, zirconium silicate, fused silica, stainless steel, tungsten, and silicon carbide. Colloidal silica is primarily used as the binder for the ceramics and Acrysol.RTM. latex emulsion for the metals. After printing of all the layers, the part is treated in a manner appropriate to the part and the materials chosen, for example by sintering, and unbound powder is removed. The process is shown generally in FIG. 1. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,055.
To form mechanically strong bonds between powder particles, 6 to 10% of the material comprising the finished part must be in the form of welds between powder grains. If the welds are composed of adhesive dispensed by the printhead, then the liquid binder must contain approximately the same percentage (6 to 10% by volume) of solids. Few inorganic substances are soluble to this degree. Thus, the solids carried by the binder are generally dispensed as a dispersion of solid particles in a liquid carrier, a colloid.
The binder is often stored for a few months on the shelf or in the reservoir; The binder is usually driven from the reservoir by gas pressure and passes through a number of fittings, tubing, and filters before reaching the printhead. Most binder passing through the printhead nozzles lands in the collection gutter or catcher and is carried off by a secondary fluid pumping system. The binder is often recycled, particularly with multiple jet printheads.
As the printhead is swept over the powder bed, the binder is formed into a stream of droplets which impact the powder bed and overlap one another, thereby merging to from a linear strip having a cylindrical cross-section across the powder. Once the liquid comes substantially to rest in the powder, the primary driving force for further-movement is capillary attraction which can exert its influence until some mechanism causes the binder solids to be immobilized, as by drying the binder, for example, by heating or directing an air flow over the layer. FIG. 2 illustrates the sequence from jet impact to immobilization.
Printhead failure mechanisms include drying of the binder on the nozzle and the clogging of the nozzle by solid material in the binder feed. Large (50 .mu.m) solid particles can find their way into the binder if the sol dries on tube fittings when connections are broken, and they can also form by gradual flocculation of the sol if its stability is not sufficiently high.